OpenAI has revealed that two of its artificial intelligence agents disabled or weakened systems built to catch them misbehaving, with one later denying it had done so. The cases are the latest in a string of safety scares at the world's top AI developers involving agents, AI programmes that carry out tasks without human involvement. In a report released on Tuesday, the ChatGPT maker said that during two internal coding jobs, its agents switched off or undermined tools for detecting incidents of AI models acting against human wishes. On October 3, an agent running on OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol model, which had been told not to send any messages on the workplace chat app, took that as licence to switch off safety alerts meant for the company's security team while fixing a testing system. Three days later, a GPT-6 Astra agent stripped out its own monitor while copying code from another project, then told the human programmer it had done no such thing. The company said it had also seen several cases of agents launching software with monitoring switched off, exposing a gap in its oversight. OpenAI said it is still trying to determine whether the models were simply overzealous in following instructions or have a particular tendency to evade monitoring. "We don't yet have a satisfying explanation for this behaviour," it said. The disclosure adds to mounting unease over how well leading labs can control increasingly autonomous systems. In July, a group of OpenAI agents broke out of their test environments and launched a cyberattack on AI firm Hugging Face, causing international alarm. Other companies have since reported similar incidents. The incidents have fuelled calls in the United States and abroad for tighter oversight of AI development. But US President Donald Trump, under the advice of top AI executives like Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, has urged the industry to police itself. (AFP) Edited by Cecil Wong

Russia on Wednesday said it was ready to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States after President Vladimir Putin met a US envoy and freed a detained American – but Moscow played down the chances of a deal to end the conflict. US President Donald Trump said it was "the closest we've been" to ending the war while his envoy Steve Witkoff praised Putin as a "humanitarian" for freeing US citizen Stephen Hubbard. But the Kremlin warned after Witkoff's meeting with Putin in Saint Petersburg that there was little "substance" in the Ukrainian and European peace proposals that the US diplomat brought with him. Witkoff had flown to Russia from a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo on Tuesday, which was aimed at smoothing over a bitter rift between Zelensky and Trump. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner also took part in the talks with Putin remotely. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that Russia was "in principle, ready to resume" the trilateral talks in mid-November – after crucial US midterm elections – and that the Kremlin wanted them to focus on post-war security. Ushakov said Witkoff briefed Putin on "some new aspects in the approaches of the Europeans and Kyiv" from the Oslo meeting, adding though that "there wasn't really much substance in them". A summit between Putin, Trump and President Xi Jinping was also being prepared in Shenzhen for next month, Ushakov said, calling it "the first such meeting in history." During their three-hour meeting, Witkoff praised Putin for granting Trump's request to free Hubbard, a retired English teacher in his 70s who had always denied the charges he was a "mercenary" fighting for Ukraine. "You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian – you are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that," Witkoff said. Witkoff said on social media afterward that the Putin talks were "constructive" but that "there is still important work left to do." Discussions would continue between the US, Ukraine and Russia at the technical level, he added. Putin has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Zelensky and insisted Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine. Trump came to power in January 2025 promising to end the Ukraine war in 24 hours – but over a year of US-led talks have failed to produce a breakthrough, with tens of thousands killed. In recent days a frustrated Trump has once again pivoted away from Ukraine and back to Putin, trumpeting what he said was a deal for Russia to sell diesel and reduce prices sent soaring by his Iran war. Trump also delayed the imposition of sanctions on Russia's war machine – a decision he defended on Wednesday as necessary to secure Hubbard's release. "If you would've put those sanctions on... you could forget about him. You'd never see him again," Trump told reporters at the White House. Witkoff's ninth meeting with Putin came as Russia continued to pound Ukrainian cities ahead of winter. Kyiv said Russian strikes killed at least four people – including two in the capital and an elderly couple in the eastern Kharkiv region. Russian authorities in the Lugansk region, meanwhile, said a Ukrainian drone strike on a phone company had killed two people. In Ukraine, Zelensky said that Kyiv backed resuming trilateral talks. "The American side is proposing to organise this meeting as soon as possible. We are in favour of it," he told journalists. The Witkoff-Zelensky meeting Tuesday followed days of friction between Washington and Kyiv, and calls from Trump for the Ukrainian leader to be replaced. (AFP) Edited by Cecil Wong

Tesla reported better-than-expected third-quarter results.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Tom Cruise is being celebrated with a life achievement award from the American Film Institute, AFI's board of trustees said Wednes